


The Pursuit of Science

by TheMidnightAssassin



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Gen, Science Fiction, Transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2018-10-17 10:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10592328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMidnightAssassin/pseuds/TheMidnightAssassin
Summary: At the start of a well deserved ceasefire, all is well for the victorious mercenaries of BLU.  That is, until several of them wake up with strange, uncontrolled new abilities.  Within a matter of days, the entire team has been affected.  With the end of ceasefire approaching at an alarming rate, the team scrambles to get their powers under wraps before fighting resumes the next week.Rated T for violence and language.





	1. Chapter 1

**BLU Base; Freight**

Sniper rolled over on the couch and brought his watch to his face. He squinted to see the small face in the light of the rec room. 6:00 pm, read the silver hands.

Sniper sighed heavily. Engineer had a BBQ planned for the night to kick off the week long spring ceasefire. In all, he had to admire the Texan for his efforts. There were few things that could bring the whole BLU team together, but somehow Engineer always managed to rally them for food and beer when the time was right. Besides the food, the team couldn't miss an opportunity to get each other drunk enough to start telling old stories. Sniper himself tended to stay away from the drunken aspect. While he felt he could hold his liquor rather well, he refrained from going overboard ever since Spy ended up trapped as a head in the RED Medic's refrigerator for several weeks. After that, both he and Spy had taken to simply sitting back and watching the rest of the team loose themselves to either drink or exhaustion.

Tonight, though, Sniper had little desire to go to the BBQ. All day, he'd had a horrible headache that wouldn't subside no matter what he did. He swore he'd tried everything from drinking more water to having a nap. Yet, it refused to sleep. To top it all off, his back had begun to ache after he'd awoken from his nap, probably from the odd position he'd taken while sleeping.

Demoman glanced down at Sniper. "Ahy, Sniper, better get moving or you'll miss dinner. If Scout starts eating before you, you know there'll be nothing leftover."

Sniper grabbed his hat off the arm of the couch. "I'm coming."

He pulled his hat on so it covered his eyes. Despite there only being one light turned on in the room, he found himself squinting against it. Just another annoying side effect his headache had come with. The most he could hope for in going was that some food and beer would clear everything up.

Sniper nearly jumped out of his skin as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," Medic said as he pulled his hand back, "I didn't mean to scare you." He took up Sniper's pace toward the outdoor common area. "Are you feeling alright? You've hardly left the couch all day."

Sniper glanced at Medic out of the corner of his eye. The doctor never asked about a teammate's health unless he was the cause of it. Considering Sniper had no desire to spend the night in Medic's lab, he simply replied. "I'm fine doc."

"Ah, just me then…" Medic mumbled. Louder, he proclaimed, "I'll be in my lab if you need me. I wouldn't want to end up naked in the desert again."

Sniper watched as the other man hurried away. While he'd received many strange responses from Medic, this one was new. Hopefully there wasn't some sort of sickness going around base. Then again, if he were to catch an illness, he'd only have himself to blame as he'd decided to spend a few nights on base instead of in his van to win a bet with Scout.

"Howdy Sniper." Engineer said from where he worked over a charcoal grill. From where he stood, Sniper could smell a mixture of hamburgers, hot dogs, and fine spices coming from the imported sausage Medic liked.

Sniper nodded in response. "Hey truckie. Where're you hiding the beer?"

"That's the spirit, lad!" Demo said. The muscular Scotsman slung his arm around Sniper and thrust a chilled, unlabeled bottle into his hands.

Sniper grabbed the bottle with both hands so he didn't drop it in his loose grip. "Thanks."

He pulled away from Demo's hold. Heavy, Soldier, Scout and Pyro were seated around a makeshift table fashioned from a board of plywood set over two barrels. Spy was propped up against the concrete wall of the base, watching Engineer cook with a hint of disgust betrayed in his features. Sniper opted for a small crate positioned just off the main table. While he was never big on conversation, Sniper did like to be close enough to listen to people talk. It reminded him of when he was little and watched the other kids play from the safety of trees.

Sniper brought the bottle in his hands to his lips and downed half of it in one go. The beer was a little on the bitter side for his taste, but good regardless. He was ready to get rid of his headache, even if in doing so it meant he'd get a new one in the morning.

"Yo Demo, pass me a cold one!" Scout called from the bench.

Demo flipped the cap off a new beer with his thumb. "I'd love to Scout, but this beer's not cold and you're not old enough for it."

"Jeez Demo, would you quit with that age crap? I'm twenty three, alright! Medic confirmed it last time we had one of these things, remember, or were you too friggin drunk?"

Demo chuckled as he plopped the bottle down in front of Scout. "You can calm down, lad, I'm just messing with you."

Sniper suddenly leaned forward. He barely managed to grab the edge of the table to keep himself from falling on his face. His vision swam, blurring the colors of the ground together. He wasn't sure what came over him. All he'd drank was half a beer. Yet, just as quickly as the feeling had come over him, it dissipated.

"Is Sniper trying to beat Scout as lightest weight team member?" Heavy asked.

Sniper pulled himself back into an upright position. "I'm fine." He drank the rest of his beer. "Thought I saw a tarantula."

Pyro squirmed away from Sniper's end of the table. "Mrhhf hur sprhurr?"

"Ah, don't worry Pyro," Engineer said as he deposited a large tray of food on the table, "there wasn't really a spider there. Sniper was just being cautious." On cautious, Engineer shot Sniper a look to keep his mouth shut on whether or not he truly saw a spider.

Sniper diverted his gaze to the food. He helped himself to a hamburger, a hot dog, and an exotic smelling sausage. Engineer wasn't always the best on the stove, but as soon as he got to cooking on a grill, he was a fantastic cook.

"Yo Shpah!" Scout called with his mouth half full of food. "You gonna help us eat here?"

Spy looked lazily at Scout from behind the haze of cigarette smoke. "Hardly."

Engineer offered up a dressed hot dog on a paper plate. "Come on Spy, I know it's not the chicken we did last time, but I promise it's delicious."

Spy turned his nose up at the offer. "I doubt that." He flicked the butt of his cigarette onto the dirt, then stamped it out with the toe of his shoe.

"What's his problem?" Scout asked as Spy walked away.

Engineer shrugged. "I dunno Scout. Some people just don't like hot dogs."

Sniper suddenly stopped mid bite of his hamburger. He felt his head spin as he was overcome with an extreme sense of vertigo. In response, he stood, causing the world to tilt around him. He knew he had to get back to his van before he was sick or passed out in front of his teammates.

It took all his concentration to keep from falling over as he walked away from the barbecue. He was vaguely aware of someone asking if he was feeling alright, but he brushed it off as best he could through the pounding in his head. Somehow, he managed to get away without suspicion, then made it to his van.

Once he pried the door open with fumbling hands, he was able to get into the safety of the dim interior. The achievement was short lived, though, as white hot pain flared up along his neck and back, and he collapsed.


	2. Monday Morning

Sniper's eyes flew open as his lungs struggled for breath. A heavy mess of cloth was pulled tight around his neck, strangling him. Instinct told him to grab for his throat, but the self-defense classes he'd taken kicked in and he spun his body around the best he could while lying on the floor. Instead of dislodging the attacker, the cloth only tightened around his throat.

He could feel panic set in as he thrashed out to try to free himself. There was a loud crash as his collection of coffee mugs came tumbling to the floor. He felt something tug on his back muscles, then the cloth released from Sniper's throat.

Sniper curled into a half fetal position to cough from the return of air. His hands pulled the cloth around his throat only to have it stop on the back of his neck.

"What the hell?" Sniper coughed.

He tugged the cloth further out only to find his vest and shirt bunched up around his neck like a scarf. He slipped the garments over his head and tossed them across the van. Breathing shakily, he flopped back onto the floor and sighed. He let his hands fall back onto something warm and soft.

With a start, Sniper pulled his arms to his chest. Stretching out from beneath his back were fluffy white masses of what appeared to be feathers. Slowly, he sat up so he could get a better look at the pure white fluff. Sure enough, as soon as Sniper sat up, the, what he assumed to be, wings pulled themselves up with him.

Grabbing the edge of one wing with his hand, Sniper pulled out the new limb until a good part of it was pulled out in front of him. There was no doubt that the thing was a bird wing. Most of the feathers were white, but down by the primaries and along some of the secondary feathers on their top sides were collections of black spots similar to his white eagle owl, Sir Hootsalot.

Sniper growled at the back of his throat. Medic had to be responsible for this. That was why he had been acting strange the night before. He'd probably added something to Sniper's morning meal, or stuck him with a needle in the middle of the night. It wouldn't have been the first time the doctor had experimented on a teammate either. Scout had been Medic's last victim and had ended up sporting puss filled welts for a week. While not welcomed, Sniper was ultimately glad bird wings were the most of his problems. Regardless, he had to find the doctor so he could get the whole mess cleared up before whatever had been done to him spawned worse effects.

With surprising ease, Sniper thrust his arms forward and sprung onto his feet. Though he couldn't confirm it, he had a sneaking suspicion that his body was significantly lighter than it had been before. If he had to guess, whatever Medic gave him had caused his bones to hollow like a birds. He was glad, then, that he hadn't been awake for the transformation, as he could imagine it would have been nothing but incredibly painful.

Sniper stopped halfway out the door to his camper. He had no desire to go out shirtless, but with a sigh he realized none of his shirts would fit over his new limbs. Accepting his fate, he took the first step down, caught his wings on the door frame and tumbled down into the dirt. His still somewhat recovering throat sucked in the fine dust, causing him to cough and gag. Sniper picked himself up with a groan. He was going to have to get used to carrying the wings around behind him for the time being. While they didn't off balance him, they did pose a particular challenge when moving though tight spaces.

Sniper flapped his wings once to dispel the dust from them. To his surprise, they made next to no noise despite their size. He took one more look at them, then set off toward the base. He was thankful the sun was still below the horizon. That meant the only ones awake would be Medic in his lab and Soldier training in the courtyard. Sniper had no desire to encounter any of his teammates in his current state. It wasn't even a matter of physical self-consciousness, but rather that he didn't need anyone else to know he'd been the target of one of Medic's experiments. Scout especially couldn't find out. As soon as the boy saw the wings, Sniper was sure he'd beg both Medic and himself for a pair of his own.

Sniper knocked lightly against the metal door of Medic's lab, "Medic? It alright if I come in?"

His question was met only with silence.

"Better not be elbow deep in Heavy's chest, doc, because I'm coming in." Sniper said as he pushed down on the handle. With a click, the handle stopped, keeping the door firmly in place. "What the hell? Doc! Open the door!"

From somewhere on the other side of the door, he heard a gasp followed by a heavy thud. Moments later, a strange cracking sound like a skull hitting tile resonated through the hall.

"Medic!" Sniper threw himself against the door to try and get it open. Without so much as even a shifting of the door, Sniper bounced harmlessly off and stumbled backward onto the floor.

"Bugger..."

"Sniper?" Heavy asked from where he'd stopped after turning the corner. "What happened to you?"

Sniper grumbled softly as he stood back up. He looped a finger around his belt and used it to pull his pants up above his waste. "Medic's been experimenting on us again. Looks like he's letting his bloody bird fetish lead him this time."

Heavy's eyes traced the arch of Sniper's folded wing. "Yes, that is clear. Why were you on floor then?"

"I'm too light to break the door down. It's the, eh, bird thing, I think."

Heavy raised an eyebrow. "Why do you need to break down door?"

"I heard something from in the lab. Doors locked, there could be a RED in there."

Heavy balled his hands into loose fists. He took a few steps back, then rammed into the metal door, tearing the lock from the door frame with a puff of plaster powder.

Medic shrieked from the office at the back of his lab. "Stop! Get out! Out of my lab!"

Heavy's eyes widened at what sounded like car tires crunching across dirt that was coming from the office. "Doctor!" He yelled as he threw open the office door. "Doctor?"

"I told you to get out," Medic hissed.

Sniper slowly approached Heavy so he could see past the massive man. Inside the office, he saw Medic amidst a tangle of leaves and branches. On his back was a large, steadily growing tree that looked like a hybrid between an oak and an aspen. All along his arms, thickening grape vines coated in a patchwork of tough bark worked their way up along the walls, furniture and ceiling until they mixed with the expanding canopy of the tree. Down by his feet, the roots of the tree forced their way through earth and foundation, causing the grinding noise Sniper had heard earlier.

Medic let out a huff of frustration. "Well since you're here, would you mind getting me out? This tree seems to be hell bent on killing me."

Heavy reached forward and grabbed the nearest vine barring his path. He pulled down, tearing the vine from the main body of the tree it was growing from.

Medic inhaled sharply as thick orange sap oozed from the separation of vine from tree. Suddenly, the roots of the tree grew upward, digging themselves into Heavy's calves.

Sniper backpedaled into the main lab. He frantically dug through Medic's equipment while Heavy attempted to further rip apart the invading foliage.

Medic's breathing shortened considerably. "Wait, Heavy, stop!"

Sniper charged back into the room wielding a bone saw. With a grunt, he drove the saw through the growing mass of greenery, cutting a path toward Medic.

"Sniper, stop!" Medic's voice cracked. "Please, stop..."

Sniper ignored Medic's pleas to focus on the task at hand. The vines fought back, catching on his wings and legs in an attempt to stop him. Sniper forced his way to Medic's side and grabbed his shoulder. Immediately, the plants stopped growing. The vines and leaves relaxed into natural positions, and the tree separated from Medic's back.

Medic collapsed into a trembling heap with his hands grasping at his tattered clothes. "Stop, stop, stop, stop." He whispered repeatedly beneath his breath.

"What did you do to yourself doc?" Sniper said as he bent down. When he came closer, he could see a series of leaves growing from Medic's arms and legs. Along his spine and parts of his back were thick layers of bark that ended just above his tailbone. Peeking through his ripped shirt were folds of lighter bark that lined his chest and crept part of the way up his chest.

Medic took a few shaky breaths. "I didn't do this to myself...why would I do this to myself?"

Sniper pulled back at the pain in Medic's voice. The doctor always seemed to be one of the strongest members of the team, the one who focused on the task at hand and remained relatively composed at all times. To hear his voice so shaken by genuine pain admittedly made Sniper uncomfortable.

"Then what," Heavy grunted as he tore the last branch from his leg, "happened to you?"

"I don't know." Medic forced himself to sit up. He pulled his legs up to his chest and rested his head on his knees. He made small sounds like he was crying, but nothing came from his eyes.

Sniper rubbed the inside of his arm subconsciously. "If you didn't do this, then how did this happen to us?"

Medic shook his head. "I...I don't know. Heavy, h-have you experienced any abnormalities?"

"No doctor."

"Interesting..." Medic reached back and pressed his hand against the trunk of the large tree invading most of his office. Slowly, he wrapped his hands around the trunk until he had the tree wrapped in a hug. "I'm sorry." He mumbled at the bark.

Heavy turned to Sniper. "Get water for doctor. I will take care of...this."

Sniper glanced up from the branch of the tree he had been running his hand over. "Water? Sure."

He turned his back to Medic. He stopped just before the doorway. Caught up in the moment earlier, he must have caught his wings on the frame and moved on. Looking at the narrow frame, he wasn't quite sure how he'd fit through, but he had didn't want to fall down again. He took a step toward the door to get a better judgement of it. Involuntarily, muscles in his back tightened, bringing his wings together and back to let him fit easily though.

Sniper sighed softly as he made his way toward the kitchen. Hopefully his body would automatically know how to control his wings later if he still had hem when the time came to battle again.

Semi-wrapped in though, Sniper jumped back several feet at the sound of what he could only imagine to be a rain of metal coming from the end of the hall. He pressed his hands to his chest for a moment to stop his heart from fluttering, then ran the length of the hall to the kitchen. He threw open the mess hall double doors and was met with a painfully loud clatter as objects that had been levitating fell to the floor. The large table that was usually at the center of the room was thrown against the far wall, and shattered bowls and plates were scattered across the room. Every pot and pan had been torn out of the cabinets and seemed to have exploded around the edges of the room. At the center of the destruction, Demoman stood dumbfounded.

With a creak, the table peeled away from the wall and slammed back into its upright position. "I..." Demo started, but stopped when his eyes moved across Sniper's wings. "I...what the hell?"

A pile of pots clattered to the floor as Soldier sat up out of them. "What in the name of Sam Hill was that private? I want an explanation before I am forced to torture one out of you!"

"Ach, don't look at me, Engineer's the one who went and touched the bloody thing."

"I don't know what kind of sick game you're playing," Soldier said as he marched up to Demo, "but I am not amused. Do you see my face, it is the epiphany of not amused!"

"Gosh darn it Soldier." Engineer grunted. He pushed the dining table bench off his chest. "Yelling at him ain't gonna get us nowhere."

Soldier turned sharply on his heel. "Listen here you hippie, I don't want to hear another word out of your..." he stared blankly at Sniper for a brief second before he turned his face to the sky and screamed.

Sniper took several quick steps back. "Sorry, didn't mean to bother you."

Holding onto his continuous scream, Soldier charged Sniper and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "I order you to stop these antics immediately!" He transferred his hold on Sniper's shirt to one hand, then grabbed the bone connecting one of his wings to his back and wrenched it down.

Pain shot through Sniper's body, causing him to cry out.

Soldier grabbed on to Sniper's shoulder and started pulling it and his wing apart. "Your fancy makeup is no match for me, cupcake."

Sniper's back arched as he tried to get himself into a position to hit or kick Soldier. To his dismay, he found Soldier to have him locked in a place he couldn't hurt him. "Makeup?  
That thing's attached to my bloody back!" With a sickening pop, the wing joint popped out of its socket.

"No, I will not stop until you and Demoman stop lying to my face!"

A band rang out from behind Soldier and his grip on Sniper fell away as he collapsed to the floor.

Engineer stood with a frying pan in his hand and a frown etched into what was visible of his face. "Y'all right Sniper?"

Sniper tried to pull his left arm out from under his body. Pain lashed out all across his upper back that caused his vision to swim. "Actually...do you know how to set a dislocated arm? I think this should work the same way."

"Course I do." Engineer said as he grabbed hold of Sniper's wing at the base and at the joint. With one swift motion, he set the limb back into place with a loud pop.

Sniper bit the edge of his lip, which helped him to keep from crying out in pain. "Thanks." He mumbled.

"Not a problem. Now, uh, you mind telling me what happened to you?"

Sniper slowly sat up. His wing throbbed slightly with pain and one side of his back hurt whenever he moved. "I dunno. Woke up like this."

"So did I." Demo said. "I dunno how it happened. I just woke up with these orbs following me around." He pointed to a floating sphere of soft yellow light. "Engineer went to get a better look and it made a tornado in the room. I'm not sure what caused it, but I'm almost certain it's magic."

"Demo," Engineer said, "I don't think this is magic. Otherwise it'd probably be affecting all of us. Whatever this is, it looks like it's targeting specific individuals. Could doc be doing one of his experiments again?"

"It's not Medic." Sniper said. "He's been affected too."

Engineer scratched his chin. "Maybe…a respawn malfunction? I can go check the code. It has been known to turn out some, uh, mistakes in the past. It's a good place to start."

"Ach, I'll come with, I suppose. Better than sitting around here. Eh, what are we gonna do about Soldier?"

"Just leave him here," Sniper said, "he'll hopefully have come to his senses by then."

Sniper tucked his wing up against his back again. Though it hurt, he found it easier to hold it against his body than out at an angle.

Sniper glanced toward the kitchen. He had originally come to get water for Medic, but that hardly seemed relevant to him anymore. Besides, he had a sneaking suspicion Heavy had intended for Sniper not to return. Thus, with Engineer and Demo heading to check respawn, Sniper found it the perfect time to slip away back to his van.


	3. Certainly Not Magic

Spy must have had the same dream a hundred times, but no matter how many times he had the dream, it never failed to frighten him. The feeling of his chest tightening, his hands clawing toward the surface, only to drag him down further. Water mounting above him, crushing him slowly. He failed to die though, simply suffer. Simply left to struggle against nothing in the darkness and unholy depths that stank of the sea. In his dreams there was no one to pull him to the surface, to draw the water from his lungs and wrap him in a rough blanket. In his dreams, all he knew was darkness, cold, and the awful smell of the ocean.

Spy woke up in a cold sweat. His chest heaved up and down, sucking sweet oxygen into his lungs. Something was wrong, though, his throat still burned like he was inhaling liquid. He realized then that each breath was futile. He was breathing, sure, but it was hardly enough to sustain him, and the air entering his lungs felt heavy and think, like water.

Spy rolled out of bed backwards onto his feet. His legs gave way beneath him, and he found himself down on one knee. He stayed like that for a while, panting through a burning throat until he found the strength to stand properly. With legs still unsteady, he stumbled into the bathroom across the hall from his room. The door slammed shut a little louder than he would have liked, and he nearly collapsed onto the sink. Nearly too late, he grabbed the edges of the sink. He held himself up above the pale white porcelain. One hand reached up into the medicine cabinet and pulled down the glass sitting on the bottom shelf. He filled it half way with water, and downed it in one gulp.

Blood dribbled from his lips back into the base of the glass. A small gasp escaped him as he released the cup. With a crash, the glass shattered at the bottom of the sink.

Spy clenched his hands to keep them from shaking. He felt his chest tighten. Surely he’d been poisoned. It was the only thing he could think to explain his condition. Unless he’d managed to pick up a virus in Sicily. Yet, if that were the case, he should have shown signs of illness days ago. Likely, he’d picked up something, or rather, someone much worse.

There was a soft knock on the door. “Mmrh hur huddah?” Came Pyro’s muffled mumbling.

Spy’s breath grated against his throat as he spoke. “Go away,” he croaked out.

Pyro mumbled with a hint of concern in their voice.

“Go away!” Spy repeated, louder this time.

Pain flared up along his neck and sides. He knew respawn would bring him back, but he had no desire to die slowly before his teammate. If he could die quietly, then he wouldn’t have to explain himself for a death by poison. All he had to do was make his way back to his room with no incident and everything would sort itself out easily.

Spy’s hands curled around the edge of the sink. He could have sworn he felt something move beneath the skin of his jaw. He pushed his fingers under the edge of his mask. Gently, he tugged it up so it bunched at the bridge of his nose. Before his eyes, the skin at the back of his jaw shifted, forming two small welts that immediately turned bright orange.

A wave of emotion rolled through him briefly only to end in anger. He hadn’t been poisoned at all. His pain could only be attributed to one man, the RED Medic. That had been why he had been so keen on hunting down BLUs on the night of their last battle. He had been injecting him with his latest experiment. Since Spy had been unfortunate enough to be killed by the RED’s syringe gun, he had certainly been subjected to whatever that twisted man had come up with. The mere memory of his last run in with the man’s work made the scars around his neck prickle.

A fresh flare of pain lashed through his back, doubling him over into the sink. The burning sensation was like that of being set aflame. Yet, no time that he had died to the enemy pyro had resulted in a feel quite as intense. His body slumped down, rolled off the sink, and curled into the fetal position on the floor. He wasn’t sure how much more he could physically take. His breathing was so short, he could barely get enough oxygen in his system to stay conscious.

Something slammed into the door of the bathroom, sending a powerful shudder through his body. Involuntarily, he groaned, hoping it would relieve the pain coursing through him with every heartbeat. Surely it had to end soon. Such agony couldn’t possibly go on forever. It had already drained him of his strength, so it must have been close to an end.

Hands not his own pressed against his back. Someone murmured his name. Or did they shout? He couldn’t quite tell. In fact, he could hardly hear anything at all. The hands rolled him onto his back, exposing him to the light on the ceiling. The light burned his eyes, overloading his sense and bringing him over the edge into unconsciousness.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Demo flicked through a thick stack of printed paper without looking at a single word. “So, uh, how many more of these are we going to look through?”

Engineer shifted his weight so he could better lean over the papers laid out in front of him. “We’ve still got about two hundred more pages of these. There’s a lot of information to flip through. I mean, we’ve only looked through deaths so far. We’ll have to do a systems check as well as check for any abnormalities in the wireless relay between the computer and the sequencing machine.”

Demo sighed heavily. “How long do you think that’ll take?”

Engineer turned back in his chair. Without his goggles, it was easy to see the exhaustion lingering around his eyes. “You know, if you don’t want to continue, it’s uh,” he glanced at the glowing ball hovering at the center of the room, “it’s best if you just go. We wouldn’t want you to get excited, or anything like that.”

Demo cast his glance to the floor. “Ahy…yer right. We don’t need another one of those tornadoes wreaking havoc in here.”

Engineer nodded and returned to flipping through the respawn logs.

Demo made his way into the rec room. On the wall was a small landline phone that had its fair share of scratches from use, but still got a decent signal through. He retrieved the phone and brought it onto the large armchair by the TV.

“Hello, who’s this?” The woman on the other end of the line yelled.

Demo settled into the armchair’s worn leather. “Hello mum.”

His mother’s voice softened. “Tavish, me boy! It’s about bloody time you called yer poor old mum.”

“I’ve been busy mum.”

She let out a huffing breath. “You better’ve damn well been. I take it you got more jobs then?”

Demo put up the footrest. “Eh, no. I haven’t. I still just have the three I told you about last time.”

“Lazy boy, Tavish! You know how many jobs yer da had at your age?”

“Twenty-six, I know mum.” Demo sighed. “Mum, I got a question for you.”

“Well get on with it.”

“It’s a magic question, you see-“

“Oh!” His mum said. “Have you been messing around with that witch lady again? How many times do I have to tell you not to go messing with cursed books? You’re just like your father, always-“

“Mum.” Demo said firmly. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Merasmus…I think. I woke up this morning with a ball of light following me around like a lost pup. When it’s calm, it’s like a mini sun, giving off warmth and light. My coworker touched it though and it went haywire. There was a tornado in the kitchen, it threw a table and nearly killed the guy who touched it. Didn’t leave a single scratch on me. Made me the eye o’the storm.”

The line stayed silent for several long minutes. “I never hear of anything like that, before. You best not be pulling me leg, Tavish.”

“I swear I’m not mum. Something weird’s gone on at the base. I’ve got this sun ball, and one of the lads on my team’s grown big bloody owl wings.”

“Ahy, that is strange.” She said slowly. “Might not be magic…I’ve heard rumors-“

“Mmph!” Pyro came running into the room, flailing their arms wildly above their head. “Mmhurrdur! Dermurph!”

Demo shot out of his seat. “Py! What the bloody hell’re you screaming about, can’t you see I’m on the phone!”

Pyro frantically tugged on his arm, pointing down the hall. “Hurrdurr murr hudah!”

Demo frowned deeply. “Ack, sorry mum, I have to call you back.”

“Tavish Finnegan DeGroot don’t you dare hang up this-“

Demo dropped the phone as Pyro gave the final tug that dragged him down the hall.

“Alright,” Demo grumbled as he pulled his arm free. “That’s enough of that. You’ve got my full attention now, what do you want?”

Pyro tugged on his sleeve again, gesturing down the hall. “Hurr! Huda hudah!” Pyro said while waving their arms toward the hall.

Demo shook his head. “Ok, show me what the problem is. Swear on me mum though, if it’s another spider, I’m gonna kick yer ass.”

Pyro led him down the hall to the door for the small bathroom on the second floor. “Hurr, mrph!”

Demo tried the door. “It’s locked Py. That means you have to wait your turn to get in.”

“Hurr!” Pyro repeated.

Demo raised an eyebrow at the firebug. He knew what that meant. While he couldn’t understand a word of what Pyro said, he did understand the call for spy. “What? Is Spy in there? Then you best let him be. Man like him needs his privacy.”

Pyro tapped lightly on the door and spoke slowly. “Hurr. Mrph.”

From behind the door came the sound of several objects tumbling onto the linoleum floor.

Demo leaned in and knocked the back of his knuckles on the door. “Uh, Spy. Everything alright in there?”

His question was returned with a deep, uneven wheezing. Moments later, the thud of a body hitting the floor met Demo’s ears.

“We’re breaking in, Py, c’mon.” Demo said. He took a few steps back, then charged the door with as much force as he could muster. The door creaked, but the lock stayed put in the wall.

There was a groan from behind the door. “One more time.” Demo said.

Pyro held out a hand to stop him. They put their hands on the door and squared their shoulders. Smoke started to rise up from beneath their palms, spreading across the door until all its wood had been burned away.

Demo looked at Pyro with intrigue. “We’ll talk later.” He brushed past Pyro into the bathroom.

Spy was curled up on the floor in the fetal position. His hands were locked against his chest, holding onto his mask. Blood covered his lips and chin as the end of a trail that started in the sink.

Demo bent down. “Spy?” He placed his hands on Spy’s back to turn him from his side to his back. “C’mon, talk to me.”

Spy’s eyes rolled back in his head. Seconds later, his body went limp, though his skin still trembled.

Demo hefted the dead weight up into his arms. “Pyro, let’s go see doc.”

Pyro grumbled softly, but complied. “Nuhuddah?” They said, prodding Spy’s exposed temple.

Demo swatted Pyro’s hand away. “Ehy, don’t do that. Leave him be. He’s bad enough off without you jabbing him.”

Pyro mumbled something more unintelligible then usual and crossed their arms.

Demo kept his eyes forward. Sure he was curious about what exactly Spy looked like mask less, but he wasn’t going to stare. He’d been in the demolitions trade long enough to have gained a great deal of self-control when it came to the business of others. He figured if the backstabber wanted to show himself to the team, he’d do it on his own time, not infirmed and unconscious.

“Bloody hell.” Demo stopped in the door of Medic’s lab. Way in the back of the lab, by the office, was an enormous oak tree whose branches broke through to the first floor, leaving the wall between the small office and main lab effectively demolished.

Heavy stood from where he was stooped over the operating table and approached the new entrants. “What is problem?”

Demo gestured his shoulder to the tree. “Uh…” He refocused himself. “Spy. He’s gone and got himself hurt. Pyro and I found him half dead on the bathroom floor.”

Heavy eyed the small sun ball as it floated into the room. “Now is not good time to see doctor.”

“Hah!” Medic called from the table. “Now is a perfect time. Let me see the damage.”

Heavy reluctantly stepped aside to allow Demo to bring Spy over to Medic.

Demo stopped shot. “Uh, how are you feeling doc?”

Medic waved him off, causing the small leaves growing out of his bare arms and chest to sway. “Pah, it does not matter. Let’s take a look, shall we.” He reached forward and grabbed Spy from Demo’s arms.

“Interesting…” Medic unbuttoned Spy’s stained white undershirt and pressed his ear to Spy’s chest. “Well, well, well, what do we have here? Respiratory issues in the lower chest? Heavy, bring me my stethoscope.” He looked up at the sun ball. “How long has that been here? Is it with you two?”

Demo nodded. “Ahy, it’s mine. I woke up with it.”

Medic scratched his chin. “Strange. That would make for the third member of our team to be affected today. Perhaps Spy is experiencing abnormalities as well. It would explain his weakened state.”

With a wet squelching sound, Spy’s body slid forward on Medic’s knees. His arms slid from his shirt, and he landed face down on the ground. As he did so, the top layer of his skin stayed behind, stuck to the inside of the fabric. Revealed along his back and arms was a new, thick orange skin coated in a thin layer of colorless slime.

Medic’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. Demo took a solid step back. Pyro made a loud wailing sound and ran from the lab.

“How fascinating!” Medic exclaimed. He dropped onto the floor, giving Demo a good view of the thick bark lining his spine. “Look at this.” He inhaled sharply. “I think I know the problem.”

Little vines snaked their way from Medic’s bare ankles toward Demo, who took another step back. As if in response to his discomfort, the room darkened considerably, forming a layer of gray clouds along the ceiling.

Medic stood with Spy cradled in his arms. “Demo, are you doing this?”

Demo looked up at the fluffy gray clouds. The sun ball had disappeared entirely, presumably replaced by the clouds and light mist that was pooling along the ground. “Yes? I can’t control it. Dunno what’s causing it. Thought it was magic, but I’ve come up with nothing as a source to it.”

A miniature clap of thunder sounded through the room, resonating off the walls. The clouds darkened again, then started raining lightly.

Medic stifled a yawn against his shoulder. “I see.” He shrugged and strode from the room.

Demo sighed. Like with the tornado, there were no clouds or rain where he stood, leaving a perfect dry circle around him. A light lit up above him. He glanced up to see the sun ball had returned, but only for his circle.

Heavy forced his way past the trunk of the tree with a stethoscope in hand. “Where is doctor?”

Demo’s eyes flicked toward the door. “Let’s go find him.”

Heavy walked silently alongside Demo. If he was fazed by the rain in Medic’s lab or the sun ball following Demo, he was doing a fine job of hiding it. Of all the team, though, Heavy had always been the quieter, calmer one. All of them had seen some strange things while working for BLU, but Heavy was the one who always kept a level head. Unless Medic was in danger. Then it was easier to deal with Soldier’s rabid raccoons than the enraged Russian.

Medic brushed past them, walking at a brisk march back toward his lab.

“Doctor?” Heavy called after him.

Demo put out his arm to stop Heavy. “Where’s Spy?”

Heavy raised an eyebrow. “He was not with doctor?”

“No.” Demo said. He turned Heavy back toward the exterior door that lead to the back of the base. “Come on, Medic’ll come back on his own.”

Heavy nodded and followed Demo out to the back area of the base.

The back yard of the base was one of the more machinery based sections of Freight. It contained all of the pumps for the water flowing throughout the underbelly of the territory, as well as some of the storage units for grain to go on the trains.

Suddenly, a splash came from around the other side of the main pump.

Demo put his fingers to his lips and gestured for Heavy to follow him. Quietly, they crept along the edge of a nearby silo until they had a view of the shallow maintenance pool slowly churning behind the pump.

Demo squinted his good eye in the light of the rising sun. “D’you see anything?”

“Mmh…” Heavy approached the pool and bent down at its edge.

Demo walked around behind him, peering over him into the pool. Floating at the surface of the water were strips of pale skin and short strands of dark hair. Lying on the grate at the bottom of the pool was a pair of blue suit pants and discarded black socks.

Demo grimaced. “That's…”

“Yes.” Heavy stood and crossed his arms. “Spy is dead. Is most unfortunate.”

“No you half-wit. He’s not dead, I think. He couldn’t have gone far, he’s probably just invisible.” He frowned at the abandoned pants. “Let’s hope he’s invisible.”

Medic pushed his way past Demo and Heavy with a medical kit in his arms. “Ack,” he set the kit on the ground, “You can’t hide from me, my aquatic friend.”

“Doctor…” Heavy said as he placed his hand on Medics shoulder.

Medic pushed him off and ran to the control panel. He threw a large red switch on the panel and the water began to drain from the pool.

Medic fished a small syringe gun from a pocket on what remained of his uniform coat he had grabbed while inside. He narrowed his eyes as he scanned the pool. “Where are you…”

Heavy and Demo exchanged looks of confusion. “Eh, doc,” Demo said, “what the blazes are you doing?”

Medic fired a shot into the empty pool that ricocheted harmlessly off the metal siding. “Come on out,” he cooed, “I promise I won’t hurt you.” He jumped down into the pool and fired off several seemingly random shots. He bent down and picked something up off the grate. “He’s not? I-I thought surely…”

Heavy jumped down to the pool, causing the metal grate to groan from his weight. “Doctor, stop. Where is Spy?”

Medic reloaded his syringe gun. “He was in the pool. I was certain he was aquatic. Like a fish or something of that nature. It would have aligned with the transformations Sniper and myself have experienced. Factoring in what we see with Demoman, and that we have all retained the majority of our human features…” He pushed down a large, flat leaf that had been making its way out of his sleeve. “I’ll need to run more tests. Find out what’s causing this, harness it. Think of the possibil-ah!” Medic dropped to his knee. The heavy fabric of his coat split into threads as the trunk of a tree growing from the doctor’s back became too large for the garment to contain.

Heavy grabbed Medic’s shoulders to make him easy to pick up. “Doctor!”

Medic groaned softly. “This doesn’t align with my hypothesis.”

Heavy’s brow furrowed. He grabbed the trunk of the tree with one hand and held Medic to his chest with the other. With a grunt, he pulled apart man and tree.

Medic let out a strained breath, then collapsed against Heavy. Thick amber sap pulsed from his back, quickly coating himself and Heavy.

Heavy’s jaw locked. “Doctor?” He held Medic out and tried to stand him on his feet.

Medic’s body collapsed over itself into a heap like a deflated balloon.

“Oh now you’ve gone and done it.” Demo called.

The air above them crackled as two bolts of lightning shot from a ball of clouds forming above Demo’s head.

Heavy looked wearily up at Demo, then climbed out of the pool to head back into the base.

Demo hung his head. He hadn’t even had a single thing to drink today and he was already feeling worse than he ever had drunk. Of all the things he’d witnessed in his life, this was certainly on his list for the strangest. It was far from the strangest thing, but the others at least had some explanation, however strange those explanations may have been. The sun ball didn’t seem so bad compared to what his teammates experienced, though. Even if it had completely upturned the dining hall and left Medic’s lab waterlogged, it was still better than growing trees or whatever it was Spy had.

He was startled out of his thoughts by a muffled thud on the top of the nearest silo.

Demo looked up the length of the structure to find it void of life. He stretched out his arms and flexed his fingers. He needed to get out of his own head and away from his team. While he couldn’t risk going to the bar without control of his miniature sun, he was fairly certain Spy wouldn’t be in his smoking room, thus leaving his collection of expensive liquors unattended. And given everything that had happened since the morning, Demo was sure Spy wouldn’t mind if he drank a bottle or two.


	4. Intrusive Thoughts

Each footstep echoed down the hall like cannon fire. Each one seemed to be louder than the last. It made Heavy wonder if the others could hear the guilt he felt.

Of course, he knew everything would work out in the end. Medic would respawn just like any other teammate when they died. Never before, though, had the doctor died by Heavy's own hand. He, Heavy, was supposed to be the healer's defender. The defense class in the midst of intense combat. Sure, he wasn't flawless, he knew that, but he'd never acted so irrationally to cause the death of a teammate.

It wasn't as if he'd meant to kill Medic. In fact, that was the opposite of his intent. He'd just wanted to free his teammate from pain that was all. It had never occurred to him that doing so would result in Medic's death. Nor was he ready for such a violent death to befall the doctor. He could still picture it in his mind's eye. Medic's body crumpling in his arms, hot blood coating them both. The feel of the doctor's life leaving him so quickly. They faced death every day, yes, but this death had been too abrupt. It was almost as if some inhuman force had taken his friend's life in one decisive blow.

Heavy entered the small room that was set aside for controlling respawn to find Engineer half slumped over the keyboard for respawn's computer. He cleared his throat. "Engineer."  
The Texan jolted up, sliding his hard hat back up his head as he did so. "Howdy Heavy. Is there-uh, is there something I can do for you?"

"Da." Heavy said. "You need to turn on respawn machine."

Engineer rubbed his temple. "I can't turn the machine back on 'till it finishes its save cycles and the match starts on Monday. If Scout went and got himself killed, then he's just gonna have to deal with missing his week off."

"Scout is not dead. Is emergency. Medic is dead."

"Medic?" Engineer said. He sighed. "Look, as much as I'd like to, we can't risk trying to respawn him until Wednesday at the latest. Even then, it'd be a gamble, and I think it's best if we leave it until the match."

The skin on Heavy's palms prickled, causing him to close his hands into fists. "Is not soon enough. There must be some way Medic can come back faster."

Engineer shook his head. "No can do. If we tried respawning Medic right now, who knows what we'd come up with. He could spawn in dead, or deformed, or with the wrong body. We have no choice but to wait until it's safe. I'm sorry, really, I am. If there was any way I could bring him back safely, I would."

Heavy nodded. He trusted Engineer. If there was really a way to safely bring back Medic, Heavy knew Engineer would have done it. Engineer was not the type to lie to get out of doing work. Nor was he the type to make light of potential threats to the lives of his team members. "Heavy understands."

Engineer smiled and gave Heavy's arm a gentle pat. "Don't worry about it too much. I assure you Medic'll be nice and safe in the respawn machine. Hell, given what's been gone on this morning, maybe it's for the best that the doc gets to spend the week in respawn. It'll help him keep his sanity. Or, uh, what's left of it."

"Engineer." Sniper burst into the room. Every inch of him was coated in a fine layer of brown dust. "You're a smart man, right?"

Engineer glanced around the room as if he hadn't been the one address. "Yeah…I'd say so. Whadda you need?"

Sniper shuffled further into the room, his figure taking up considerably more space with the wings on his back. "Riddle me this. I've got wings, I'm lightweight, and I've even have larger lungs. So, why can't I fly?"

Engineer adjusted his goggles. "There's a lot more that goes into flying than just having wings. For starters, you need the muscle power to back it up, then you need the proper spine configuration or core strength so you can-"

"Could you make me fly?"

"I…" Engineer glanced over at his desk. "Well, that depends-"

Heavy shifted around Sniper so he was closer to the door. He couldn't quite place it, but there was something off about the man that was bothering Heavy. Whatever the cause, Heavy trusted his intuition and wanted to take a few minor precautions in case something were to go wrong.

"But truckie," Sniper said, "can you make me fly?"

"I, uh…um…yes, yes I could. Theoretically, of course."

Without thinking, Heavy reached out and closed his hand around a gash on Sniper's forearm.

Sniper cried out in pain. "What the bloody hell are you…" His voice trailed away as Heavy lifted his fingers. Sprouting from a gash in Sniper's arm was a tight blanket of small, blue flowers. All at once, the flowers, shuddered, wilted and fell away. Beneath, Sniper's skin was healed with only a faint blue-tinged scar to show there had ever been any damage done.

Sniper and Engineer looked at Heavy in shock.

Heavy took several steps back to the door. He quickly walked from the room with the other's eyes still on his back. It couldn't be happening to him too. First Spy, then Medic, and now he too would suffer from some horrible mutation. Of course, magical flowers were only the beginning. Soon, he'd turn into a man sized flower, or worse. Then he'd be killed just like how Medic killed Spy and how Heavy had killed Medic.

No, Heavy wasn't about to let himself become like that. While he didn't think either Spy or Medic to be weak men, they were much smaller and likely couldn't fight off the disease as well as Heavy was sure he could. All he had to do was keep his new ability under wraps and he wouldn't end up changing like the others. If he simply went about his life normally and suppressed any more unsettling urges, he would be just fine.

  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  


Scout opened his eyes and blinked steadily to separate his eyelashes from the sleep clinging to them. His head throbbed dully beneath his eyes. It was a painful reminder he'd had far too much to drink with Soldier and Demo the night before.

He sat up slowly and groaned. He needed some aspirin, or something. Anything really to stop the pain mounting in his head. Whatever Demo had given him must have been some strong stuff. While he considered himself more of a lightweight, he didn't usually get knocked out this badly by regular beer. In hindsight, he it was stupid of him to take whatever crazy concoction the Scotsman had brewed up.

Scout shivered slightly as his bare feet touched the cold hardwood floor of his room. He was glad he didn't have anything planned for the day, because if he did, he wouldn't have been up for it. Even with aspirin, he had a feeling his hangover wouldn't go away completely. It was alright, though, since there were a few baseball games he could watch, or even maybe…

Scout's train of thought was interrupted by a very quiet, very faint murmuring of "of course not."

Scout raised an eyebrow. "Uh, hello?"

"Merde." The voice said, louder this time. He could hear now that the voice belonged to that of one of the spies. Though weather it was RED or BLU, he couldn't tell.  
Scout rose to his feet. His hands instinctively grabbed for the baseball bat propped against his bedside table. "If you guys are trying to scare me or something, it ain't working."

This time, the voice came from the hall. _"Stupid boy."_

Scout quickly pulled on a pair of pants and ran out into the hall. "Gotcha!"  
The hall itself was completely empty. The only sign anyone had been there at all was that the door to Heavy's bedroom was propped open ever so slightly.

Scout's grip on his bat tightened as he crept towards the door. It had to be the RED Spy on the other side of the door. He was probably trying to throw Scout off guard and ambush him for a bit of fun during ceasefire. Scout, however, was not about to let that sleek suited bastard get the jump on him. Bat in hand, he was fully prepared to face whatever the enemy had in store for him.

_"Ah."_ The spy said. _"Here it…did he follow me?"_

Scout burst into the room, ready to take a swing at the first sign of red. "Hell yeah I did!"  
Just like the hall, the room was completely empty. The curtains were drawn tightly over the blinds, giving the space a monotone gray color. It provided too many shadows, too many places for a spy to hide in.

"Can't hide forever, Frenchie." Scout threw open the curtains. "Ah ha!"

There was a quick flash of movement to his right. Scout swung at it, only to crack his bat against the wall. "What the?" He peered around the room. Something had moved, that much he was sure of. He had been sure it was the spy, but seeing the room still empty made him doubt himself.

Scout dropped onto the floor to look under the bed. Once he did, there was the sound of rapid scurrying above and to his left.

He bolted upright, a white-knuckle grip on his bat. "What the heck was that?" He crept closer to the door. "This ain't funny guys. I'm serious Demo, if it's you, I'm gonna bat your head in."

_"Idiot."_

Scout turned on his heel to look back into the hall where the spy's voice had originated from. The tension in his shoulders relaxed a bit. It was all just part of some elaborate hoax pulled by Spy. That explained the disembodied voices and the weird scurrying he heard, which probably was just that invisible asshole trying to mess with his head.

He rubbed his temples. He was far from being in the mood to be the butt of a team joke. He already had an awful headache and by the sun setting out the window, had wasted the entire day sleeping.

Scout groaned loudly to ensure his team would hear. "I'm not gonna do this right now guys."

Bat in hand, he drug himself down the hall. He needed something to eat and a cup of coffee. That sort of stuff was supposed to help cure a hangover, or so he'd heard. At least it would wake him up a bit. If he hurried, he could have enough time to get in a run before it was too dark to see.

"Holy crap!" He exclaimed in the doorway to the mess hall.

The place looked like it had been torn up by a pack of wild dogs.

_"The bloody hell was that?"_ He heard Demo whisper. The Scotsman peeked his head out from the kitchen. "Scout?"

Scout picked up one of the chairs and placed it at the small bar separating the kitchen from the mess hall. "Uh, what happened, was there like a hurricane or something?"

"Hah," Demo turned back into the galley style kitchen, "you're not too far from the truth." He pointed to a ball of bright light hovering above the stove. "This bloody thing's been tormenting me all day."

A smile played on the edge of Scout's lips. "What, afraid of a little bright light?"

Demo's brow lowered. "No." He turned and opened the fridge. "It's a wee bit more complicated than that… _ya half-wit._ " He added under his breath.

Scout slid out of his chair. "Yo I heard that."

_"Kid's bloody talking to ghosts now."_ Demo looked up with a new bottle of scrumpy in his hand. "Heard what?"

Scout frowned. "C'mon, you know what."

_"Scout? No. It's a wee bit more complicated than that. Heard what?"_ Demo said, then, much louder, "Wha'd I say?"

Pain sent sparks of white light dancing across Scout's vision. He squeezed his eyes shut. "Ugh, forget it." He grabbed onto the counter for support.

"Do you need to go see the doc?" Demo said. _"Bloody stupid question. Doc's dead, can't do much right now."_

Scout backed away from him. "Stop it, with the whispering. I can't take any more of your stupid comments."

" _Great, looks like the whole base's gone mad._ Lad, I dunno what the blazes you're talking about. I haven't been whispering to you at all. Not once this whole bloody time."

Little white spots danced before Scout's vision. He had to go sit down. He'd already done too much with his hangover, and it was really getting to him. It was nothing a bit of TV and relaxation couldn't fix, though.

Scout stumbled into the large rec room where the team had a rabbit eared TV set up before a large couch made of worn leather. Pyro was sitting on a faded rainbow rug by the TV, playing with a toy unicorn. Heavy was in an armchair by the TV, absently watching the weather channel.

Scout rubbed his forehead. He had been hoping the room was vacant. He didn't want the team to know he had a hangover. They'd certainly tease him about how he could hardly even handle a few beers. Then he'd never get any respect from the older guys. Worse still, they might not let him drink with them at the next barbeque if they knew he was such a lightweight. Medic especially wouldn't let him drink again for fear of him ruining his health. Scout had to play it cool, act like nothing was wrong.

"Hey there chucklenuts." Scout said as he threw himself over the back of the couch. "It's time we got some friggin good TV going." He moved the knob until the sports channel appeared on screen. "Boom, now there's some good TV!"

"Mrph schudda." Pyro grumbled from behind their mask.

Heavy shrugged. "Heavy does not care what little Scout watches. _So long as is not colorful horses._ "

Scout chuckled and flopped onto the couch. "Yeah, yeah." He settled into the leather of the couch, enjoying the chance to sit down.

Heavy retrieved a pen and paper from the table beside his armchair. Writing on the back of a hardcover novel, Heavy muttered softly to himself as he composed a letter.

Scout shifted to the other side of the couch. Even though he couldn't understand what Heavy was writing, he didn't want to intrude on the man's private thoughts. He knew how hard it was to have family back home. That's why Scout called his ma every week. He figured it had to be hard for Heavy, though, since he couldn't even make a phone call to his loved ones.

_"Mrrphr duh hudda! Pfrr Pfrr der der der nrrr."_

Scout glared over at Pyro as the smashed their toy unicorn against an action figure dressed up like an army soldier. "Yo, could you keep it down over there, mumbles?"

Pyro cocked their head at him. "Mer?"

"Yeah you," Scout snapped, "I'm trying to watch my game."

Pyro gave a small nod and turned back to their toys.

Scout sighed. The game wasn't going as well as he'd have liked it to.

"Culp lines up the pitch, readies it-throws a beautiful curveball and-fantastic hit by Murcer. That one's going straight into the outfield right by-"

_"Hurrduruhhh!"_

"I can't believe I'm witnessing this with my own eyes-"

_"Frhur. Mrh! Mrh! Mrh! Brhrhrhrhrhr!"_

Scout hunched up his shoulders and clapped one hand over his left ear to help block out Pyro's incoherent mumbling.

"That's it, he'd going straight for home! Murcer and Alvarado in the final moments, can they-"

_"Frerh, frerh, frerh, frerh! Whrhh!"_

Scout shot to his feet. "Shut up!"

Pyro startled back, a melted heap of the soldier doll in their hands. "Mer?"

Scout stormed over to Pyro. "Yeah you. What part of shut the fuck up don't you understand? I'm tryn' to watch my game over here and your friggin playing with stupid dolls? What crap's wrong with you! How old are you, five?"

_"This is not right."_ Heavy came up behind Scout and placed his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Scout, stop. Pyro has not made any sound. You are only one not being quiet."

Scout threw his hands into the air. "How the hell are you siding with him? He's the one who's been mumbling non-stop over here!" He flinched as his headache flared up again, prompting him to crab the sides of his head.

"Heavy has already told Scout, is no noise from-" Heavy frowned at Scout's discomfort. He grabbed the young man's shoulders. _"Look at Heavy."_

Scout's eyes flicked to Heavy's face. "What do you want?"

_"Mouth is not moving but little Scout hears words, da?"_

"Yeah." Scout said. "Wait, how are you…"

"Heavy is not pulling trick. Scout can hear thoughts of team. There are strange things happening on base. Is hurting team, now including Scout."

Scout's eyes lit up. "Wait. So you're saying that I can read minds. Like uh…like a superhero?"

" _Would not exactly say hero._ Is best theory Heavy has."

_"Hurdr."_

"Or ye could be a supervillain, lad." Demo said as he entered the rec room.

Scout clutched the side of his head. A soft buzzing had picked up as Demo's inner voice entered the mix of thoughts Scout picked up on. Now he could identify his new power, he realized he could hear people's background thoughts, like the voice of their subconscious. It was far too faint to make out properly, but the noise from it was still there. If he really concentrated, he could hear their automatic thoughts, like the signals telling their hearts to beat or their eyes to blink.

Another wave of thoughts rushed over him, this time with the voice of Spy. Scout's headache grew worse, sending him to his knees with a pain like his skull being split by the bat of the enemy scout.

The thoughts of his teammates escalated with their concern.

"You aren't looking so good lad." Demo said. "I think you need to sit down."

Heavy hoisted Scout onto the couch. _"He is so pale. Is not good for baby Scout."_

_"I hope the lad's ok."_

_"What's going on here? Oh, that's Scout. It looks like he's been infected with the virus. Hopefully I'll no longer be the only-"_

_"Is best if feet are elevated? Heavy-"_

_"Mrph scrht? Irh hrr mrk-"_

_"-Can't be magic at this point, too much-"_

_"Not as though I had a choice-"_

_"If doctor were here-"_

Scout curled inward, into the fetal position. "Guys," he whispered, "too many, gotta…"

Engineer walked in with Sniper trailing close behind. The two tipped what little balance remained in Scout's mind.

"Heavy, I've got a…" Engineer watched as Scout toppled off the couch in an unconscious heap. "question for you."


	5. Doubts

Engineer sat on the arm of the couch with the rest of the team positioned in a semi-circle around him. "Alright. Let's do a head count. We've got Demo, Scout and Sniper as our living members with confirmed mutations. We have Heavy and Pyro with possible mutations. Myself with no mutations. Then Soldier, Spy and Medic are unaccounted for. Do I have that all in order?"

"Actually," Demo said, "Soldier has holed himself up in his bunker." He took a swig from an expensive bottle of brandy held loosely in his hand. "He picked himself up after you knocked him out and headed straight down there, I think."

Engineer rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah…of course. I hope he's not experiencing any of these abnormalities." He cleared his throat. "Right, so the matter at hand. As it is, none of us can leave the base for ceasefire. We don't know what's causing these mutations, and we don't know how stable they are or what damage they could cause. Overall, we shouldn't risk leaving base in case we infect or injure civilians."

Heavy nodded slowly. "Is not preferred, but is necessary."

Engineer approached the chalkboard mounted at the back of the room. With a few swift motions, he erased a hastily played game of hang man. "Alright, let's make a chart."

"Like that's gonna help." Sniper mumbled.

Engineer frowned as he set up a small T-chart on the board. "It will help because we need to look for patterns. If this is some kind of disease or if someone's trying to mutate us, there's gonna be a pattern. So, let's take inventory of mutations."

Sniper strode up to the board and put the notes "wings" and "flightless" on the board beside his name.

Demo shrugged. "I dunno what to call this thing. Eh, how about this." He jotted down "weather ball" on the board. "Sounds about right."

Heavy approached the board and added "mind reading" to Scout and "tree monster" for Medic.

Engineer nodded at the board. "Heavy, aren't you gonna…"

"Heavy does not have problem." He said. "Is Sniper who healed self, not Heavy."

Sniper opened his mouth to speak, but was immediately silenced by a harsh glare from Engineer.

"Alright, I reckon that's all we have for the time being." Engineer looked down at his watch. "Ah hell, it's getting late. Y'all should get some shut eye. No offense, but y'all are looking mighty worse for the wear. I'll do some research tonight to see if I can come up with what's causing these mutations to occur. In the meantime, I think it's best if we just all take it easy so we don't accidentally blow up the base in our sleep."

"Ah lad, you've got a point." Demo said. "Besides, there's not much more we can do tonight anyway. Especially not with doc out of the picture."

Engineer nodded as the team started to file out of the room. He stared back at the chalk board. There had to be some pattern. This was no supernatural occurrence, or at least, it was unlike anything supernatural he'd encountered in his life time. No, this had to be the work of some sort of man-made force. The only question remaining was what that force was. It could have been anything, really. An experiment carried out bit the RED medic, a new chemical introduced to the water supply for Freight. Hell, it could even have been a new form of nanotechnology designed to manipulate individuals at a cellular level. Nothing could be left out of the realm of possibility. However, things could be ruled out.

Engineer retrieved the cordless phone from where it hung on the wall of the rec room. He carefully dialed the number for his counterpart.

"You'd better have a damn good reason for calling while we're still on base." The RED on the other end of the line growled.

Engineer shifted the phone to his shoulder so his hands could fiddle with his tool belt. "Of course I do. You know I wouldn't take the risk otherwise."

"Alright. So what is it?"

"Has uh," Engineer lowered his voice to a whisper. "Has anything strange happened at your base today? Anything out of the ordinary, at all. Even sickness is on the table."

The RED paused for a second. "No. Ain't nothing unusual happened here today. Why? What happened to y'all?"

"Folks here been getting sick. It's spreading pretty fast, wanted to see if it affected the REDs as hard as it's hit the BLUs."

The RED's tone lightened. "Got a little pandemic on your hands, don't ya? Well, thanks for the early warning. I'll be sure my team keeps their distance over ceasefire."

Engineer nodded absentmindedly. This ruled out the idea of the cause being in the water supply. Though why someone would be targeting just the BLU team was beyond him. "Thanks for taking my call. I hope you have a mighty fine ceasefire. Say hi to your girls for me."

"Will do," the RED said, "Night Dell."

"G'night."

Engineer replaced the phone to its receiver. He wasn't much closer to finding the source of the problem, but it was a start. At least the RED team was unaffected, that helped to ease his concerns a tad bit. If they were still normal, then there was hope that what happened at the BLU base was simply an isolated incident.

A low groan came from the couch. "Ugh…my head…"

Engineer hurried over to the couch. "Scout, I'm glad to see you awake, son. We were worried your brain'd been fried from all of us talking to it at once."

"Pfft-ow!" Scout cradled his forehead in his hands. "I'm tougher than that. It's gonna take more than friggin' talking to kill me."

"Of course." Engineer sighed. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I could…uh, I'm fine. Now that basically everyone's gone, I'm fine, I swear." He peeked around Engineer at the chalkboard. "Oh crap, is that everyone's powers?"

"Mutations, yes. I thought writing them down might help me find a pattern to identify their origin."

Scout maneuvered himself around the couch, using it as a crutch to stand until he was able to stumble to the wall with the chalkboard. "Ah man, this is so cool. Demo can control the weather. Medic's a tree monster, and Sniper's a bird man! We're like a superhero team or something."

With one hand leaned up against the chalkboard and the other holding a stub of white chalk, Scout added another column to the board. "Ok, so if we're gonna be superheroes, we're gonna need cool names, and secret identities, and costumes, and-"

"Scout," Engineer said, "this isn't a comic book. We're not superheroes. Things like this don't just happen and everyone's ok with it. If we were to leave the base who knows what could happen to us. Hell, for all we know, we could be in the middle of some experiment right now. We may not be able to leave, in fact, we may never see our families again."

Scout's shoulders fell. "Oh yeah…I guess I didn't really think about that." He cringed a little bit at hearing Engineer's internal concern. "I uh…I-"

Engineer sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so harsh. Look, how about you go ahead and give everyone with powers a superhero name. It'll help lighten the mood around here, I think."

A smile tugged up Scout's face. "Yeah, yeah. Uh, let's see. Demo's got the weather, so he's gonna be, uh…Forecast! And Snipes…wait, do you know what kinda bird Sniper is?"

"He mentioned to me that he thinks they might be owl wings, like Sir Hoots-a-lot."

"An owl? Perfect." Scout lightly bit the end of the chalk. "Then he'll be…Night Owl!"

Engineer joined in Scout's smile. "Yeah, that sounds good. And how about Hemlock for the doc since he's a tree monster and all."

"That's perfect! And me, I'll be Insight, 'cause I can read minds."

"About that." Engineer said. "You're gonna need to keep that under wraps."

"Geeze, you're telling me. Everyone's stupid thoughts give me a headache. I thought it was just a hangover, but this is way worse."

Engineer frowned. He took the chalk from Scout's loose grip. "That's not what I mean. I mean that it's best if you try not to read people's minds. Some might not take too kindly to it."

Scout crossed his arms. "I can't exactly control it. Plus I don't actually read minds, I just kinda like, hear them. I don't know, I don't even know all I can do. I just got this power today and everyone's thoughts won't shut up in my head now, it's sorta hard to think straight."

"Now you know how the rest of us feel." Engineer said. "Look, just try your best, and at the least, try not to upset anyone. Soon as the doc's back, we'll work out a cure for these mutations, and everyone'll be alright."

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  


Heavy lay on his back with his hands folded across his stomach. Alone with his thoughts, guilt ate away at him. The team needed Medic now more than ever, but the doctor was dead by Heavy's hand. If he hadn't been so foolish, Medic would still be alive, helping to cure the mutations ailing the team.

Heavy looked down at his hands. Though he wanted to deny it, he too was developing powers. He'd felt it when Scout had passed out, the desire to heal him, to get him back on his feet. If he could heal though, could it have been possible that he could heal Medic? If the doctor had even a little bit of life left in his body, Heavy could bring him back. Then, if respawn was working slowly, perhaps Medic's body would still be left out by the water filters.

The bed creaked as Heavy got up from it. If there was even a small chance he could bring back Medic, he had to take it. It was the only way he could make up for what he'd done. Besides, if he didn't do something, his guilt would stay with him forever.

Out behind the main base, the water filtration center was just as it had been left that afternoon. The water in the pool was still drained, and Spy's discarded suit pants still lay at the bottom grate. Lying limp beside them, was Medic's corpse.

Heavy grimaced. The damage was worse than he had first realized. Medic's body was folded in on itself like a balloon that lost its air. Think coats of dark orange blood were caked onto the gate surrounding him, illuminating the withered tree Heavy had ripped from his back. Worst of all was the pleading expression imprinted into his features, serving as a reminder of what Heavy had done.

Heavy jumped down to the bottom of the pool. Slowly, he approached his friend's corpse. He couldn't feel the desire to heal it as he had desired to heal Sniper or Scout, but he was certain there had to be something here for him to work with. Even if it was just a small shred of life, Heavy was sure his power could bring back Medic.

Heavy kneeled down and grabbed Medic's forearms. For several minutes he sat in silence, but unlike when he'd healed Sniper's cut, no tingling feeling came to his hands, nor did any flowers sprout on the doctor's skin. He frowned and concentrated on the feeling of cold flesh beneath his hands. Sill, nothing changed.

Heavy slammed his fists down on the grate. It should have worked by now, but of course his power wouldn't work on something important. For all he knew, his power could have only worked on small wounds. To make matters worse, he had absolutely no control over his power. In fact, it likely only activated when he was around fresh wounds or injuries. Medic's had probably occurred too long ago for him to have any effect. It was foolish of him to have thought that he could have any effect so long after Medic's death. He couldn't bring back his friend, it was too late. He'd have to let respawn do its work when battle rolled around the next week.

Heavy gasped as his hands were suddenly thrust forward over Medic's chest. Blue light traveled up his hands, then thin, thorn coated vines shot from the tops of his arms into Medic's body. Heavy's chest tightened and he made an attempt to pull back. The vines held tight, cementing him in place. Little blue flowers sprouted from Heavy's palms and raced across Medic's body and the surrounding dried blood until nearly the entire grate was covered in a blanket of flowers.

Once the area had been effectively coated with flowers, they withered and died away. Heavy cocked his head slightly as the disintegrating flowers revealed there to be nothing beneath them.

"Heavy?"

Heavy turned back to find Medic standing with his head cradled in his hand. With his free hand, he gently tugged at Spy's suit pants, which the flowers had been kind enough to dress him in.

A smile spread across Heavy's face as he stood. "Doctor!"

Medic forced a smile. "Heavy, what's going on? How did I get here?"

"You were dead, but Heavy brought you back." He realized then that the doctor's skin was smooth and free of the tree and leaves that had been plaguing him. "And Heavy has cured tree monster problem."

Medic stretched out his arms and examined them. "You have! Danke, Heavy! How could I possibly repay you for such an act?"

"Is not needed. Heavy is glad to have doctor back."

"It's good to be back, Heavy."

Heavy nodded. Perhaps Medic had forgotten how he had died. Respawn did have a function that allowed the one respawned to forget their actual death to prevent insanity, his healing abilities likely had the same feature.

Medic looked down at his hands. "Heavy. How did I die?"

Heavy diverted his eyes form Medic. "It was tree on back. It killed you when it grew out second time."

Medic's hands clenched into fists. "You killed me. Didn't you?"

"Heavy did kill doctor." He said slowly. "But was accident. Heavy did not know pulling tree off back would kill doctor. Heavy thought he was helping."

Medic's voice changed to a growl. "But that doesn't change that you killed me. Do you have any idea what kind of a risk that put the team at? Without me, how could we possibly find a cure to the mutations plaguing the team? How did you expect to help Demoman without me? Or Scout without me?"

"But doctor, I brought you back. Is not important now how you died because you are back."

Medic's head slowly lifted up. "It does not change that you killed me. I thought you were better than this. I thought we were friends, perhaps more. Yet here you are, betraying me by killing me."

Heavy lifted one arm defensively. "Doctor is not-"

"It's not what, Heavy?" Lumps began to form irregularly across Medic's skin. "It's not like that? Not like what? Not like you let your fear control your actions? You're only the strongest defensive member of the team. Someone like you would never be so foolish as to allow their anger or emotions to control them, right?"

Heavy took a step back.

"I can see in your eyes I've struck a nerve." Medic said. "Would that be because I'm correct? Oh I believe it is." The lumps grew larger, forming into blue tinged welts. "I can see it all now. You're afraid the rest of the team will find out. Sure Demo knows, but who's he going to tell? What you're really worried about is Engineer or Sniper or, oh my. What if this were to get out to the Administrator? I don't think your job would last long then. My, your family will be so disappointed in you. That is, if they'll even be given the chance to live long enough to express it."

Heavy clenched his hands into fists to keep his hands from trembling. "Doctor, stop! Words are lies meant to hurt Heavy."

Large, lily-like blue flowers burst from the welts, spraying Medic's orange blood over Heavy. "Oh but Heavy, mein words aren't lies. I'm a doctor. I speak only the truth. You know that." Thorny vines pushed away from the base of the flowers, shredding Medic's skin like scissors through threads of fine cotton. "Now that Scout can read your thoughts, it's only a matter of time before your little secret comes out to the team. And what about Spy? I'm certain you'll be blamed for his death as well."

Heavy's jaw locked in place as he watched Medic's skin fall away in strips. It peeled back to reveal a human shaped mass of writhing vines and buds all pulsing with the doctor's blood. Then, the features of Medic's face began to fall away as if rotting.

"And to think you didn't even ask about him when you went to respawn." Medic's voice lowered several octaves as his jaw dropped off. "What do you think that will look like?"

Heavy backpedaled until his back hit the metal edge of the pool. His heart hammered against his ribcage as the imitation Medic drew closer, jerking towards him like a malfunctioning animatronic.

The last of Medic's face fell away, revealing empty black sockets where his eyes once were. "I'm disgusted to have once called you my friend. You are not my friend, you are just a selfish, irrational-"

"Stop!" Heavy roared, finally summoning the courage to stand his ground.

The puppet shrieked as its body unraveled. One by one, the vines withered away until the entire creature was nothing but a pile of orange blood and cellulose.

Heavy collapsed to his knees, his body trembling uncontrollably. Physically, he was perfectly fine, but mentally he would need time to recover from what had transpired.

"My," Spy's voice cooed. "That was quite the encounter, wasn't it?"

Heavy looked up to see a pair of green eyes staring down at him from beyond where the lights illuminated the area for the pool. While Heavy knew Spy was the only member of the team with green eyes, he didn't remember them being quite so luminescent. "Are you real Spy, or another monster?"

"I can assure you I'm far from that hideous thing you created. And yes, I was here to witness the entire ordeal." Spy replied, moving back as Heavy hoisted himself out of the pool.

"So, then Spy knows that Heavy-"

"Killed Medic. Yes. I've known for some time. I was there when it happened."

Heavy stepped forward, forcing Spy farther back. Heavy squinted into the darkness, but he couldn't quite make out more than the slope of the man's head and broad shoulders. "You…wait, how is Spy not dead? Heavy saw remains of body in pool."

"In this case, Demoman was correct in assuming I'm still very much alive." Spy's eyes disappeared along with what little there was of his silhouette.

Heavy walked to where Spy had been standing. There was no trace of the assassin anywhere in the vicinity.

"Ahem."

Heavy tilted his head up to find Spy's eyes had reappeared at the top of one of the grain silos.

"As I was saying, I am alive, though perhaps not…" His voice trailed away. "No, that's unimportant."

Heavy raised an eyebrow. "You will not tell team about what happened tonight, da?"

"No." Spy said. "Though I cannot guarantee no one will find out. That entirely up to you. However, if you don't think about it too much, I'm sure you'll be able to at least keep it from Scout."

"Yes." Heavy turned to the pool. It would be difficult to clean up what was there without arousing suspicion. It was best if he just left it there. The team would think nothing suspicious of it if any of them happened to come across it now that is no longer looked like Medic's body. He was also grateful Spy was alive. That took a bit of weight off his chest. Though it did beg the question of why his teammate was particularly keen on the shadows. And how he'd gotten all the way up the grain silo. The only thing Heavy could think was that Spy had grown wings like Sniper's.

"Spy." Heavy looked around at the empty space above the grain silos. "Spy?" Beneath his breath, he whispered. "Don't leave Heavy alone…please."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would anyone be interested in me keeping a chart in the end notes for team members, their powers and their Scout given nickname? I'm not sure if that would be helpful or just distracting.


	6. Found

Sniper rolled over and covered his head with his pillow. He'd finally gotten a few hours of sleep and had been enjoying quietly lying across the couch in his van when he was interrupted by knocking on the door.

Sniper's shoulders hunched up. "Piss off, would ya?"

"Sniper," Engineer replied, "quit being such a grouch. I've got something for you."

Sniper snapped his wings up near his back so he could stand. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he opened the door. "Sorry about that Truckie. I assumed it was Scout or something." He rolled his shoulders back and stepped outside his van. "You uh…said you have something for me?"

"I do." Engineer opened the main bag of a well-worn satchel he had slung over his shoulder. "I made a solution to your flying problem. And a couple of other things for you as well."

Sniper raised an eyebrow. "So soon? I only asked you about it yesterday." He looked down at the watch on his wrist. "Hell, it hasn't even been twelve hours since we last talked."

Engineer pulled a metal frame from the satchel. "Uh, I was on a kick last night. Trouble sleeping, just wanted to tinker."

Sniper watched Engineer pull the rest of his things from the satchel. His movements seemed off. The Texan was always somewhat meticulous with his movements, but now he moved with a robotic level of precision and was stuck on the same speed Scout used when opening packages from his Ma. Given that he looked fine, though, Sniper hoped Engineer wasn't experiencing any mutations.

Engineer thrust what looked like a short pitchfork into Sniper's hands. "This is the first thing you'll need. It attaches to your spine and responds to signals from your brain. When you want to fly, all you have to do is think it and this little beauty will do all the work for you to make that happen."

Sniper turned the device over in his hand. He was somewhat torn between accepting the device and leaving it discarded in his camper. When he'd gone to Engineer the previous day, he'd been looking for an explanation of how to fly, not necessarily a direct means to do so. Then again, Medic was going to be out for the remainder of the week, so it wouldn't hurt to use the device at least until then. As soon as the doc came back, though, he was going to have to get the wings removed as they were becoming more cumbersome the more he did with them.

Engineer handed Sniper a clean blue shirt and a pair of orange tinted aviator's goggles. "And here, you'll need these as well. The goggles'll help you see while you're in the air, and I've modified one of your shirts so you can wear it with the extra limbs."

Sniper took the items and slung them over his arm. "Eh, thanks Truckie."

"No problem." Engineer crossed his arms. He bounced a little on his heels, looking at Sniper expectantly.

Sniper looked off to the side as if expecting someone to show up. "Uh. Something you're waiting for?"

"Aren't you gonna test it out?"

"Oh, I guess I could." Sniper set the device and goggles on the ground. With surprisingly little effort, he slipped on the shirt and pushed his wings out the back.

Engineer grabbed the device from the ground. "Here, you'll need my help with this." He lifted up the back of Sniper's shirt.

Sniper shuddered as the cool metal of the device touched his skin. He cried out as pins shot from the device into the bones of his spine. "Bloody hell Truckie, are you trying to kill me?"

Engineer patted the other man's shoulder. "Take it like a man, slim."

Sniper grit his teeth and retrieved the goggles from the floor. His back felt like he'd been bit by hundreds of fire ants, but it would take more than harsh stinging to get him to buckle. "You're sure this thing will let me fly, mate?"

"Of course I am. But you're gonna have to test it so we know for sure."

"Right." Sniper climbed up the ladder on his camper. He was acutely aware of Engineer watching his every move as he moved to the back edge of the camper. It would be simple, throw himself over the edge of the camper and just fly. He'd already tried it yesterday, so the second attempt would be easy. Especially considering he now had the help of Engineer's invention.

Sniper pulled the goggles down over his eyes. They had the same tint as his aviators, so it was easy on his eyes to look through them. In a few short strides, Sniper was at the edge of the camper. With as much force as he could muster, he lept off the edge and extended his wings.

With a beep, the device wrapped around his abdomen. The pins dug into his flesh and his wings pushed down.

Sniper sucked in a short breath as the device auto piloted him upwards. With it, flying felt as easy and automatic as walking. All he had to do was think it and his body would react accordingly.

He leveled off and looked down to see Engineer waving at him from the ground. A smirk spread across his features. He dove at Engineer's form and pulled up at the last second.

The Texan jumped back, calling. "It works?"

Sniper circled and passed him again. He couldn't believe how fantastic it felt to be in the air. Everything seemed limitless from his elevation. The RED base, the nearby train depot, all of it seemed so easy to reach. What would have taken him hours to travel would now only take him minutes. That wasn't even considering the damage he could do on the battlefield with his new vantage points.

"How about you try landing!" Engineer called up, his voice nearly inaudible from the distance.

Sniper started a wide circle around the base. So many sniping spots were now open to him. Places where he would be sure to be safe from any backstabbing spies trying to rid him from the match. To make things even better, the enemy sniper wouldn't be anticipating the new positions, giving the BLU a major advantage.

Out of the corner of his eye, his peripheral vision picked up on a flash of bright crimson atop one of the water processing buildings nestled behind the BLU base. From experience, he knew the color to be a dark orange, which ruled out one of the REDs being on their base. Then again, if it wasn't one of them, what could it have been?

Sniper pulled his wings against his body and aimed for the roof. He misjudged the distance from his elevation to the roof and crashed into it in his attempt to land. The machine on his back immediately unlocked to allow his body to tumble across the roof until it came to a stop just before the opposite edge.

Sniper pulled himself up, careful to mind the edge of the building. He would have to work on his landings. If he did that in combat, he'd be sure to lose any advantage he'd gain from new sniping perches.

Over to his right was the casing for the large air conditioning unit for the base. Behind it had been where he'd seen the movement. Cautiously, he approached the softly humming behemoth. Sure to listen intently for rapid movement, he peered around the corner of the unit. Behind it was a shallow pool filled with lazily flowing water. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary aside from a few discarded plastic bottles strewn around the pool.

Sniper's head suddenly snapped to the sound of bread being broken.

Pressed up against the cooling tubes on the outside of the AC was Spy, or at least, what Sniper thought to be Spy. While it had the same facial structure and same dark hair, the creature before him had brown-spotted orange skin and a thick tail looping around its ankles. To cover up the majority of its human-like figure, the creature wore an oversized blue shirt.

Sniper took a hesitant step around the corner. "Spook?"

The creature looked up from the loaf of bread held loosely in its hands. The pupils in its bright green eyes dilated down to small spots. Almost immediately, its surprise turned to a snarl Sniper was all too familiar with. "Sniper? How the hell did you get up here?"

"I don't think you're in the position to be the one asking the questions, mate."

Spy stood quickly, poising himself on the balls of his feet while being sure to stay in the shadow cast by the AC unit. "Need I remind you that you are the one intruding on me?"

"Fine." Sniper said. "I flew up here. Now what the bloody hell happened to you?"

Spy's shoulders relaxed. "I would ask the same of you," he moved farther from Sniper to where a second large shirt was left to dry in the sun, "though I assume that like myself, you don't know."

"You know damn well that's not what I meant."

Spy looked back at him from over his shoulder. "Then what did you mean."

"Look. Strange stuff starts happening around the base. You don't turn up for a whole day, and Heavy makes some side remark you're dead. I think you owe me a little explanation at this point."

Spy looked away from him. His tail flicked out and wrapped back around his ankles again. "I don't know what happened. I fell unconscious during the morning and woke up again at the bottom of a pool." His fingertips brushed along the side of his neck. "Believing it the work of an enemy, I quickly took my leave. Only then did I realize I was no longer fully human."

"Then, uh," Sniper pulled up his goggles so he could better see the color of Spy's skin, "what are you, exactly?"

Spy began to examine the back of his hand. "I've narrowed it some sort of newt or salamander with an…aquatic element."

"What do you mean by," Spy pulled his neck far to the side, exposing gills lining the skin there, "aquatic-oh, I see that."

Spy leaned up against the AC unit. "I've been hiding here since I…changed. I have no desire to confront our team in this state, especially with Medic dead."

"You aren't the only one experiencing weird transformations." Sniper lazily lifted his wings. "You wouldn't exactly be met with out-casting, you know."

"Perhaps that's suitable for you, but some of us have an image to maintain."

Sniper shook his head slightly. Of course all the spook would care about was his image. Not even being turned into a half salamander man could change the man's pride.

Sniper reeled back, covering his eyes as a blinding flash of light shot up from the opposite side of the BLU base. As he stumbled, he lost his footing on the edge of the shallow pool and fell back.

Before his body could hit the water, Spy grabbed his forearm and hauled him to the floor.

Sniper writhed against the feel of Spy's cool, textured skin. "Get off me!" He reached up and rubbed his eyes, desperately attempting to rub the white spots from them.

"Quiet, bushman." Spy hissed. "I believe we're under attack."

Sniper blinked rapidly. "Really? I didn't notice."

Spy retrieved his butterfly knife from the breast pocket of his shirt. "Get moving. If we strike now, we can catch them off guard."

Sniper pushed himself into a sitting position in just enough time to see Spy disappear over the edge of the roof. He shot to his feet and ran to the edge. "Spy!"

Spy glanced back at him from the top of the next lowest tier of the building. "Get moving."

Sniper launched himself off the edge of the building. The device on his back took over again and carried him to the roof just above where he'd seen the flash. This time he managed to land on his feet, but jarred his knees painfully in the process.

While the marksnman nursed his knees, Spy moved to the roof's edge. "Whatever it is, it's in the fallout bunker."

Sniper straightened up and followed Spy in a crouch to the edge of the roof. Sure enough, the edges around the hole in the ground leading into the bunker was lined with scorch marks that signaled some sort of explosion.

"This is where the flash of light came from." Sniper said. He glanced over at Spy. "We'll go in together. That way-hey, are you wearing one of Heavy's shirts?"

Spy delivered a swift blow to Sniper's ribs with his elbow. "Shut up and move, bushman."

Spy crawled quickly over the edge of the building. Sniper leaned over the edge to see his teammate easily scaling down the wall on all fours.

Sniper opened his wings and used them to gently glide to the ground. "So now you can climb walls, can you?"

Spy grabbed hold of the ladder leading down into the bunker. "I didn't realize you planned to commentate the enemy to death."

Sniper tucked his wings closer to his body and maneuvered himself into the bunker entrance. While the tube down had initially been designed for every team member to fit down, it was far from large enough to accommodate someone the size of Heavy, giving Sniper and his wings a relatively tight fit down.

As the two went farther underground, the air around them began to heat up slowly. After a few more seconds of climbing, Sniper was actively sweating, making it difficult to hold onto the rungs of the ladder.

The ladder ended in a small antechamber with a heavy steel door on one end. Where the door usually was, there was only a pile of melted metal.

Spy braced himself against the wall. "Whatever's in here, it's already made it to the main bunker. I'll go in first, when you hear gunshot-"

"Mate, I don't think that's such a good idea." Sniper squinted his eyes to see faint cracks appearing across Spy's skin. "We dunno what's in there."

Spy nodded and drew his knife. Sniper pulled his machete from his belt, thankful he'd left the weapon on before bed the night prior. Quietly, the two crept forward into the main room of the bunker.

Standing at the center of the room was Soldier. A faint yellow glow pulsed around him, sending waves of heat over the other mercenaries.

Soldier looked over at them, his face breaking out in a smile. "I never thought I would see the day when I was glad to see you two."

Sniper shielded his face with his arm, believing the action would protect him from the heat radiating off his teammate. "Glad to see you too, mate. Thought you'd be a RED."

"If I was able to move, I would kick your ass for that, private."

Spy leaned himself against the wall again. His figure bent forward ever so slightly in an effort to remain upright. "I've never known our soldier to have such restraint before."

Soldier took a step forward. "You fancy son of a bitch, I have the most restraint, don't forget it." The glow around him strengthened, giving off hotter waves than before.

Sniper stepped forward. "Soldier, Spy, stop. Fighting isn't gonna fix any of this. Soldier, why don't you tell us what happened down here."

Soldier crossed his arms. "I was protecting myself from whatever is turning our team to freaks when I fell asleep. When I woke up, I discovered I had been infected with freak. Next thing I knew, BLAMO! I exploded."

Sniper sighed. That meant the entire team had some sort of mutation. While he wasn't entirely sure on Engineer, he assumed that if the rest of the team was affected, then something had to have happened to the Texan as well. "Means the whole team's been mutated somehow."

"Question." Soldier pointed just behind Sniper. "Is he dead?"

Sniper followed Soldier's finger to where Spy was collapsed against the wall. "Ah piss." He moved to Spy's side. The spook's breathing was shallow, but his heart was racing when Sniper pressed his ear to his chest.

Sniper turned to Soldier. "We need to get him above ground. I think he's got heat stroke."

Soldier turned his nose up. "Above ground? But that is where the disease started! I assure you it is safest down here."

"You can't stay down here forever, mate. Besides, it's not a bloody disease going around, it something worse." Sniper hefted Spy over his shoulder. He wasn't sure if he'd gotten weaker or if Spy was heavier than he looked because it was certainly harder to lift him than Sniper had originally anticipated. By the time he reached the base of the ladder, he was already breathing heavily from the weight and the heat.

Sniper positioned Spy farther over his shoulder and grabbed onto the ladder. "C'mon Soldier, you can't stay here. The team will think you're a coward if you stay."

Soldier was behind him immediately, drastically increasing the temperature around Sniper. "I am not a coward. If you tell that to our team, I will stick my foot so far up your ass it will have to be removed by a doctor!"

Sniper started up the ladder. "Just…catch Spy if he falls, alright?"

"Affirmative."

By the time Sniper reached the top of the ladder, his body was ready to collapse from the effort. Immediately, he dropped Spy's dead weight on the ground near the entrance.

"Is he dead now?" Soldier asked as he hauled himself from the ladder tube.

Sniper wiped the sweat from his brow. "No. We need to get him inside the base." Up above, the sun had already begun its climb to noon, making the outside air just as hot as the air inside the bunker. If Spy was still alive, Sniper figured he didn't have much longer before he died from overheating.

Soldier picked up Spy and tossed him over his shoulder. "You know what, son. I may be a freak, but I'm a soldier first and I am going to help this mistake of nature if that's what it takes to help my team."

Sniper nodded uncertainly and followed Soldier into the common room of the base. There, Demo and Engineer were playing a casual game of billiards.

Engineer looked up from the table. "Howdy fellas. What's that you've got there, Soldier?"

"Where is Medic?" Soldier asked.

Demo frowned as he failed to sink the 6 ball. "Doc's dead, lad. His, eh, mutation killed him."

Soldier dropped Spy down on the billiard's table, causing the other two to recoil away. "Well, then which one of you men can fix this?"

Demo's eye widened. "Bloody hell, is that Spy?" He reached forward and brushed against Spy's skin. With the contact, a section of his skin flaked away to expose the muscle underneath. "What happened to him?"

"Never mind what happened to him." Engineer tugged at the collar of his shirt, using it to fan himself. "Soldier, what happened to you? You're burnin hotter than the August sun, boy."

"I was turned into a freak like him!" Soldier said, pointing an accusing finger at Sniper. The temperature in the room began to climb as the glow around Soldier began to show again. "Now I am a bomb."

Demo grabbed Soldier by the shoulder. "You know what lad, the best thing to do when yer sick is to take a walk outside and clear yer head. Doc told me that, you know."

"He did?"

"He did," Demo echoed. "C'mon, I'll walk with you."

Engineer turned to Sniper as Demo led Soldier from the room. "Mind explaining to me what happened after you left me this morning?"

Sniper pressed his palm to Spy's chest to find his heart barely beating. "Well, I found Spy hiding out up on the roof in this half-salamander state. Then there was an explosion from the bunker. Turned out to be Soldier, who's been radiating heat like that since we found him. While we were in the bunker, Spy got heat stroke and that's how we ended up here."

Engineer hovered his hand just above Spy's skin. "That explains a lot. Since Spy's gone all animal hybrid on us, it makes sense he'd get heat stroke. Salamanders and newts don't sweat like we do, so they can overheat or freeze in the proper conditions. Now, I have a good idea of how to help him, but I couldn't execute it myself. Hell, I don't even know how to change an IV bag, let alone stick the needle in his arm."

Sniper raised an eyebrow. "So we should kill him?"

"Not exactly. We don't want to make this messy." Engineer said. "We should let him pass. I reckon he doesn't have much longer left anyway. Respawn will pick him up and have him good as, well, almost new on Monday." He sighed. "I'll call the Administrator. Things are getting out of hand around here, she's gonna find out. We just gotta call her first, let her know how things are going."

"You sure she won't have us killed for this?"

"I'll convince her not to." Engineer moved Spy so he was propped up against the wall instead of spread out over the billiard's table. "My family goes back a long way with her, I'm sure I can convince her to go easy on us."

Sniper turned toward the door. "I'll take your word on this one, Truckie."

Engineer followed Sniper out of the common room and made the turn to head for his workshop. He needed to make the call to the Administrator, yes, but in private. He was thankful Sniper hadn't insisted on being involved in the call, as it would have been hard to cram Sniper and himself into his workshop.

Engineer sat down before the communications computer. "Uh," he cleared his throat, "Administrator."

The Administrator's face appeared on the screen. "What is it, Mr. Conagher?"

"Well, there's been small problem that's come up on base. You see, the team's been experiencing some unusual sort of mutations caused by some man-made event. We aren't really fairing too well and-"

The Administrator held up her hand, instantly silencing him. "I'm aware of what your team is experiencing, Mr. Conagher. I have your base monitored, you know."

"Right," Engineer said, "of course you do. I was wondering if, given the circumstances, you could extend ceasefire and maybe send over the RED medic to-"

"No. I'm not extending ceasefire, and I'm certainly not going to allow an enemy into your base. There's no telling what sort of secrets he could steal if allowed on a BLU property."

Engineer refrained from allowing any annoyance to show on his features. "Ma'am you and I both know there ain't nothing here really worth stealing."

The Administrator's eyes narrowed. "Don't test me, Mr. Conagher. You are to consider these alterations to be but a minor inconvenience and will proceed with Monday's battle as scheduled. Do I make myself clear?"

Engineer scowled slightly behind his goggles. "Yes ma'am." His fingers crept towards the shut off switch for the communicator, but stopped just before he pressed it. "Wait, ma'am. Would it be possible to shorten the ceasefire period?"

The Administrator's eyebrows rose slightly, "Go on."

"Well," Engineer removed his hard hat and gently rubbed his thumb against the rim, "I mean, it's not like anyone on our team could go home or anything like that given the circumstances. So, I think it would benefit all of us if our battle was moved up to this Monday instead of the next. That way we can safely respawn our medic and get him working on a cure to our ailments."

The Administrator leaned forward, resting her elbows on her desk. "Very well, I'll grant your request, but when I do, I expect no further calls from this team on the subject of abnormalities. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Your mission begins at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning. Good day, Mr. Conagher."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Class-Ability-Nickname
> 
> Scout-Telepath-Insight  
> Pyro-NA-NA  
> Soldier-Radiates Heat-NA  
> Hevay-Healing/'Revival'-NA  
> Demo-Weather Spheres-Forecast  
> Engineer-NA-NA  
> Medic-Human/Plant Fusion-Hemlock  
> Sniper-Human/Owl Hybrid-Night Owl  
> Spy-Salamander/Human Hybrid-NA


	7. The Battle Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So two things. 1) I'm writing fanfiction again! Which means I'll be returning to a more frequent updating of this fic. 2) I didn't really care for the previous chapter 7, so here's a NEW chapter 7.

"Mission begins in ten minutes."

Sniper flew into a sitting position, startled awake by the shrill voice of the Administrator. His heart pounded in his chest, urging him onward as he scrambled to pull on his pants and vest before he was late.

He tried to pull on his uniform vest, only to find himself unable to pull the garment on over the wings protruding from his back.

"Bugger. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger." He muttered under his breath as he glanced up at the clock. At the rate he was going, there was no way he'd be able to grab anything to eat before the match started. Maybe if he held off on going to the bathroom until after the match started, he could squeeze in just enough time to at least get some coffee going.

The vest fell from Sniper's hands as he stopped dead in his tracks. It was ceasefire week. He wasn't about to be late for a match. Nor did he have to worry himself with which part of his morning routine he'd have to drop just to be ready in time. That explained why he hadn't set an alarm for the match, there was no match to set an alarm for.

With a sigh, Sniper let his shoulders fall and he went to make himself his morning coffee. It was strange that the starting sequence for a match had gone off. He'd always thought the countdowns were done live by the Administrator, but clearly they had to be some kind of recording. Why else would the rollcall recording have been announced on ceasefire?

Suddenly, Sniper felt his stomach jolt and his coffee cup fell from his grip. Moments later, he appeared in the respawn room.

"Mission begins in sixty seconds." The Administrator announced.

Sniper dropped the rifle that had appeared in his hands. As he looked around the room, he saw his teammates in varying stages of preparing for the morning. Aside from Engineer and Soldier, the entire team was either in their pajamas or halfway dressed.

"What the bloody hell's going on here?" Sniper asked.

As if in response, the respawn machine clicked and Medic and Spy materialized, fully ready and still sporting their respective mutations.

Spy dropped to the floor and writhed against his suit, as it no longer accommodated for his altered figure. Medic, on the other hand, simply peered lazily around the room as if he'd just awoken from a deep sleep.

"Mission begins in thirty seconds."

Demo stepped up to break the team from their stupor. "Ahy, what's all this about? We aren't supposed to have a match until next week. Can the bloody Admin not read a calendar?"

Engineer slid his wrench into his belt and lightly cleared his throat. "Actually, I had her move the match up to today. It was the only way to get the doc to respawn. I thought it would help."

"Yeah that's nice and all," Scout said as he tossed his bag on over his Bonk! patterned pajamas, "but now we have to fight a friggin battle like this!"

"C'mon now, I'm sure it'll be fine. The RED team had just as much notice as we did, so I bet they're equally unprepared."

"Mission begins in ten seconds."

Sniper retrieved his rifle from the ground as the team fell silent. The best they could hope for at that point was for the opposing team to be just as unprepared as they were. Maybe then they'd have a chance not to botch the match. Then again, they likely didn't need the enemy team fully prepared in order to lose. There was no telling what would happen on the battlefield with their new mutations. Given how well the weekend had gone, the match was likely to be no better. At the least, though, Sniper was glad his mutation was relatively stable. With Engineer's invention still on his back, he could certainly use his new skillset to his advantage.

"Five, four, three, two, one." The doors of the respawn room unlocked with a pneumatic hiss, "Fight!"

Sniper, Engineer, Demo and Soldier charged for ward, leaving their struggling teammates to sort out their own problems in respawn. Regardless of the strange mutations, they had a job to do, even if that job was only going to result in failure.

Once outside, Sniper took a running start and launched himself into the air. He'd never really attempted a takeoff like that before, so his initial flight was on the shaky side. Like the previous day, though, Engineer's invention took hold, hoisting Sniper's body into the air and balancing out his flight so he could gain altitude. Thankfully, he didn't need to go all that high before he was level with the top of the center tower for the BLU base. There, he managed to land on the flat surface of the roof with little incident, only stumbling a little this time instead of some catastrophic crash.

Sniper shook himself off as he moved to the front of the roof. Down below, the battlefield was completely empty. Apparently not even the enemy scout was fast enough to get to the battlefield before Sniper's new flying ability.

The door leading from the RED base opened to admit the RED medic and scout onto the battlefield. Like the BLU team, the REDs didn't appear all that ready for the battle. The scout was half dressed and the medic had his coat and backpack thrown hastily over a set of matching fleece pajamas. Also like the BLU team, the REDs had decided to proceed with the battle regardless of their rude awakening.

Sniper got down on one knee and brought his rifle up to his shoulder. From so high up, it was easy to line up a headshot with the running medic.

On the battlefield, Demo and Soldier made their way out of the gate to the middle capture point.

"Do you think Sniper took care of their bloody Scout yet?" Demo asked as he readied his sticky bomb launcher.

From up on the top of the BLU base, the loud crack of a rifle sounded, drawing the attention of both men.

"Yes." Soldier confirmed.

Demo's face distorted to one side as he gave a lopsided grin. "That's all I needed to hear." He launched a few sticky bombs out in front of him and took a leap towards them. Just before his feet touched the ground, he detonated the bombs. The resulting force acting on his specialized boots sent Demo flying through the air towards the center point. Just behind him, Soldier fired off a rocket that sent him flying alongside Demo. Together, the two landed feet from the edge of the center point, both beaming quite literally. In the short time of his flight, Soldier's body had taken on a slowly intensifying glow while the ball above Demo was beginning to look like a second sun rising in the sky.

Demo loaded a few more sticky bombs into his launcher. "Ahy no that's how you start a match, lad!"

Across the point, the enemy scout stood, staring blankly at the headless body of his medic. At the sound of Demo's voice, he regained some of his senses, raised his gun up, and squinted at the light coming from the BLUs.

"Little late for that, son." Soldier said as he launched a rocket that landed squarely between the Scout's feet.

"Nice shooting, lad," Demo said as bits of RED scout rained down around them.

Soldier puffed up his chest, causing the light radiating from him to glow brighter. "Thanks!"

Demo took a step away from Soldier. "Ahy, watch it there lad, you don't want to go burning too strong again."

Scout raced across the field, now sporting a fresh uniform. "Looks like I'm late to the party." He glanced down at the body of the RED medic and scout. "What'd I miss?"

"You missed a glorious victory!" Soldier announced.

Scout glanced down at the ring in the center of the control point that kept track of how close they were to capturing it. "Oh yeah, real glorious. Not like you've done it a million times or…hey wait a sec," Scout's brow furrowed as his eyes scanned the area round him, "Something ain't quite right here."

Peering down the scope of his rifle, Sniper watched as the RED spy sunk the blade of his knife between Scout's shoulder blades. "Bloody back stabbing weasel." Sniper mumbled as he lined up a neat headshot for the spy.

Before he could pull the trigger, he was blinded by an intense light as Soldier exploded. Being so close to the detonation, Sniper could feel the shockwave of the blast. Moments later, he found himself curled up over his rifle, palms pressed against his ringing ears. It hadn't occurred to him at all that Soldier's mutation could be that powerful, and in hind sight, it would probably have been wise to have kept him off the battlefield.

Slowly, Sniper lifted his head up to check the damage Soldier had caused.

If the battlefield hadn't been specifically designed to withstand explosions, the area would have surely been decimated. The control point and its surrounding structures were painted in dark black trails that led back to Soldier as their center. Beside him, all traces of Demo, Scout and the enemy spy were completely gone, leaving behind only Soldier and a shadowy figure lurking in the murky waters of the Freight aqueduct.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Years ago, when he'd first started working for BLU, Engineer had explained to Scout the basics of how respawn worked. In that explanation, Engineer had described something about a system that prevented anyone from respawning into other people or objects already in the room. Scout couldn't exactly remember, or understand, how the whole setup was supposed to work, but he'd never been more grateful for it than when he respawned that day.

Upon respawning, Scout fell flat on his face. Instead of spawning him on his feet, respawn had deposited him several inches in the air.

Scout rolled onto his back, hearing a crunch as he broke twigs growing from a series of roots covering the floor. "Ah what the f-"

With a heavy thud, Demo respawned and landed face first into the roots. Only momentarily dazed, he raised his head to peer around the room. "Bloody hell, what's happened here?"

"How the fuck would I know?"

Everything from the floor to the walls to the ceiling was covered in a mess of vines, bark, and dark blue flowers. They twisted their way over the pristine white surfaces, seeming to fight each other as the vines and flowers interwove to form a complex lattice. Off on the right side of the room, a thin sapling stood in solidarity, a perfect circle around it cleared of all other encroaching foliage.

Demo took a fistful of root in his hand and turned it over. "Looks like doc's work actually. Last I saw of him, he had some kind of plant growing power, or something like that."

Scout's mind drifted briefly to Demo's flittering thoughts, bringing a frown to the young man's face. "Hell of a lot better than what I got."

"It's not a bloody competition." Demo dropped the roots back to the ground. "Now, let's get back on the battlefield."  
"Yeah, yeah."  
Scout followed behind Demo towards the ongoing battle. Just as he passed through the doors to respawn, he froze.  
I'm not a child. I don't need you to baby me.  
The thoughts were definitely Medic's. They had the same voice he did. The venom with which the thoughts came was what threw Scout off, though. It didn't quite sound like the doc's usual anger. This one seemed somehow amplified.  
Is not babying. Heavy is trying to help doctor.

Oh yes and you've done such a good job of that so far. Killing me was by the most helpful part.

"Ahy, lad, are ya deaf? I said let's get moving."  
Scout's attention snapped back to Demoman. "Sorry, I just," He pressed his thumb to his temple as pain flared up across his forehead. "Medic and Heavy are having some kind of fight."  
"The hell are you talking about, lad? They aren't here." Demo paused at seeing Scout squeezed his eyes shut. "Oh, right. Just try and block them out."

Scout groaned. "I can't." Images flashed in Scout's mind, but were too quick to fully process. In them he saw images of Heavy and Medic, each covered in spots of amber blood. Images of the same blue flowers he'd seen in the respawn room, and bark that looked like it was mismatched from multiple trees. Each image felt like a branding iron being pressed against his eyelids.

Overwhelmed by the pain, Scout dropped to his knees. He cradled his head in his hands, hoping the slight pressure would ease the pain. Instead, the pain only seemed to get worse until he slumped over and passed out.

Just a few rooms over, Heavy stood with his back to Medic. He was breathing heavily from fighting the foliage that was now scattered around him in tatters. Surrounding him, new wooded vines grew in, pushing their way up the wall and spreading roots across the floor to create their own slender trees.

"I don't need your help." Medic snarled.

Heavy turned slowly back to see Medic. The tree that had been growing out of his back was detached behind him now with its canopy ending somewhere beyond the floor above them. "If Heavy agrees, will doctor stop fighting?"

The growing vines darted inward briefly before they stopped growing altogether. "Yes."

Heavy sighed heavily. "Fine. Doctor can take care of self."

"Finally." Medic flicked one of the last shreds of his shirt from his shoulder. "It would have been much easier if you'd done that in the first place."

Heavy diverted his eyes from Medic as he noticed more thin plant stalks wrapping their way around Medic's arms. "Heavy is sorry. Did not mean to fight doctor. It was not possible to resist helping."

Medic allowed a soft silence to hand in the air for a few moments before speaking. "We need to stop wasting time. I'm needed on the battlefield." He turned abruptly on his heels, the motion sending a ripple through the vines connected to his ankles. When he moved, the vines disconnected, allowing him to walk normally.

Heavy stayed behind. The day's battle was pointless. Without going on the battlefield, he knew both teams would be underprepared and off guard. He also knew the BLU had no chance of winning. His best guess was that they would get halfway through the battle, at best, before falling apart completely. Medic, Spy, and Soldier were in no condition to be on the field, they were too unstable. The explosion he'd heard earlier was likely from Soldier, and Spy had probably slunk off to some remote area to continue hiding himself. As for Medic, he wouldn't get far before the plants overtook him again.

Heavy knew he himself was not fit for battle either. After what happened with Medic, he knew he couldn't keep his abilities under control. When he'd seen a gash in Medic's side, he'd panicked and grabbed the doctor. Sure his healing flowers had fixed that wound, but they would be a liability in battle. He couldn't be focusing his attention on healing; that was Medic's job. The team needed a heavy weapons expert, and Heavy was not in a position to take that role.

Though he knew it was against his contract, Heavy walked off the battlefield to go clean up and grab something for breakfast.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel the need to give a little background to this. So, as I assume many of you are aware, I'm far from the first person to do something like this. That being said, I have wanted to do a fic like this for TF2 ever since I read my first fanfiction for the game; The Nucleus Incident, which has a similar idea going for it. In that way, I suppose, I was inspired by it. I have read several other 'transformation' type fics through the years, but I have tried my best to take an original(hopefully) approach to the genre(?). What inspired me to finally write this fic though, was a small detail in the removed beta map Asteroid, which you'll read more on that later as it will come up in the work. All in all though, I hope you enjoy the story. (Feedback is greatly appreciated, as I am honestly very nervous about the general reception of this work)


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